Commercial and sport fishing have become major industries. The goal of the fisherman is to catch the most and biggest fish that he can. In helping the fisherman to accomplish this goal, the design of artificial lures plays an important role. Artificial lures are typically configured to simulate life-like action of fresh and salt water fish and other bait.
For many years fisherman have used fishing skirts attached to jighead fishing lures to simulate live bait. Such skirts come in different colors, sizes and shapes.
It is well known to fisherman that different fish are attracted to different colors and sizes of fishing lures. Fisherman have noticed that certain lakes, bays, and off-shore fishing yield different results with different colors and sizes. This difference depends in part upon a number of factors such as water clarity and temperature. Thus, on a certain day in a certain lake, the same configuration in yellow can yield one result while the same lure and configuration in red might yield an entirely different result. Additionally, the size of the skirt makes the bait appear larger and thus may affect the size of fish caught. Finally, multicolored skirts or skirts having reflective flecks may affect the results.
Thus, it is in the fisherman's best interest to have a wide variety of lures. However, multiple purchases of lures to obtain different colored and sized skirts can be expensive.
In addition, changing lures can be relatively time consuming. If fish are working, the fisherman may need to change lures in a minimal amount of time. Another concern is that skirts may be torn or become worn after working areas of a fishing location, i.e. brush, trees, rocks, etc. The fisherman needs a durable lure body which enables rapid skirt replacement.
While skirts have been used for years on fishing lures and in particular jighead bodies, the prior art does not envision ready removal and interchange of skirts. As seen in FIG. 1 illustrating prior art, the jighead body has an eye to attach the fishing line, a fishing hook on the opposite end and a body with a taper. The skirt slides up the taper of the jighead and remains fixed until it is cut off. The typical taper has barbs. Thus, manufacturers configure the skirt to slide on with difficulty and remain fixed.
As will be discussed in more detail, FIG. 2 shows another prior art example. The jighead does not include a skirt. A flexible, resilient lure body is threaded around the hook and pushed up on the jighead. The flexible lure body provides some movement and is attractive to fish. However, a skirt cannot be attached to this type of lure.
More sophisticated uses of skirts can occur with the placement of the skirt. For instance, if the skirt is located ahead of the attaching point of the fishing line, it appears to have different movements than if it were attached behind the point the fishing line is attached. This difference is even more noticeable with the use of soft flexible lure bodies such as minnows, worms, crayfish, and touts.
More specifically, the skirt's placement with respect to an axis of decent of the fishing lure is important to certain movements. As used herein, the axis of decent is a line through which the lure body falls in a free state in water at an acute angle having a base leg in line with gravity. The angle varies depending on weight of the lure, drag of the lure body, and other such factors. In the free state when the fishing lure falls in water, it will fall along an axis pointing to the bottom along some angle between zero degrees pointing toward the bottom and ninety degrees pointing horizontally. By placing the skirt in front of the jighead body along the axis in a direction of the angle of decent, the skirt has greater range of motion. As the fisherman "works the bait" up and down in the water, the skirt moves. As the skirt descends toward the bottom, the strands of the skirt vibrate one direction. As it is pulled up, the strands vibrate in another direction. This change adds life-like movements to the bait. The movement of such a lure can simulate movement such as squid along the ocean floor.
In attempting to combine the use of the skirt with the lure body using the prior art, different combinations were unsuccessful. At first, a skirt was placed on the shank and then the lure body pushed onto the remaining length of the shank. However, this combination proved unsuccessful. The remaining length was insufficient to properly secure the lure body. When retrieving the lure, the lure body would come off and slide down the hook. To compensate for this problem, the shank was lengthened. However, this led to other difficulties. To properly use the lure having a jighead, the lure is allowed to drop to the bottom, momentarily rest, then by a small jerk of the line the lure is lifted off the bottom only to settle on its own weight to the bottom again. This movement is reminiscent of a weak or injured bait which is attractive to fish. For the lure to properly descend, sufficient weight in the jighead is necessary so that the jighead remains in front of the lure body. It was discovered that when the shank was extended, balance of the lure was affected and the lure did not properly descend. To reestablish the balance, consideration was given to shortening the tail of the lure body. However, this option was not viable. A shortened tail yields less flexibility and therefore less attractive movement.
In the prior art reviewed herein, the issue of interchangeability of skirts appears to have been overlooked. Also, a skirt positioned forward of the mass of the lure body along the axis of decent has been overlooked.
Halliburton in U.S. Pat. No. 3,017,307 discloses a process for fixedly attaching a skirt to a jighead.
Butler in U.S. Pat. No. 3,170,756 discloses a snag-proof hook protector.
Brawley in U.S. Pat. Des. No. 220,099 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,564,754 discloses a skirt in part facing toward the head of the lure but tied behind the head and eye in a fixed arrangement.
Pobst in U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,317 discloses a weedless, weightless fishing fly using the hook orientation as a keel.
Begley in U.S. Pat. No. 3,769,738 discloses a lure whose skirt is wrapped and tied by a tie wire behind the eye and head of the lure.
Kress in U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,337 discloses a hollow plug body that allows the housing to move away from the hook after being struck by a fish.
Paulsen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,329 discloses a head having a groove that forces the skirt strands outwardly at right angles to project a substantial distance from the lure body when at rest or when moving through the water. These skirt strands are tied in place by a leader.
Wicklund in U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,395 discloses a printed elastomer fishing lure dressing on the surfaces or strands of the skirt. The skirt shown is positioned in the typical placement as seen in FIG. 1.
Patrin in U.S. Pat. Des. No. 349, 747 discloses a head with a skirt fixed behind the main portion of the jighead.
Thus, there exists an unfulfilled need for readily removable and interchangeable skirts on fishing lures, in particular jighead lures. A need exists for such interchangeability eliminating the need to cut and retie a fishing line. The present invention enables such rapid replacement. The present invention attaches the skirt in front of the mass of the lure along an axis in the angle of decent. This position allows for easy interchange. The skirt positioning of the present invention also allows for a change in lure motion. Further, the skirt placement of the present invention "breathes" better than prior art. The skirt moves more vibrantly and is more attractive to fish.
Additionally, because the skirt is in front of the principal parts of the jighead, painting of the jighead is unnecessary. Typically, when the skirt is behind the jighead, the manufacturer must paint the surfaces of the jighead to simulate live bait. When the paint becomes damaged, fisherman must retouch the paint to maintain this simulation. Without the need of painting, the manufacturer saves production costs without detracting from the lure's appeal.
The present invention offers several advantages. A fisherman with a few jighead lures can have a much more effective collection with the addition of less expensive skirts. Additionally, rapid skirt change allows the fisherman to keep his lure in the water a higher percentage of the time. Fish are more attracted to a breathing skirt. Bigger fish are attracted, because the lure appears bigger when led by a skirt. These features provide commercial attractiveness to the sale of the lures of the present invention.